The Immaculate Virgin appeared to Bernadette twice again; on Easter Monday, April 5th, and July 16th, the Feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel.
The following 28th of July, the Bishop of Tarbes named a commission of inquiry, composed of ecclesiastics, physicians and learned men. July 18th, 1862, he published a decree concerning the events that had taken place at Lourdes; it was couched in the following words:
"We judge that the Immaculate Mother of God did really appear to Bernadette Soubirous, Feb. 11th, 1858, and on succeeding days to the number of eighteen times in the grotto of Masabielle, near the city of Lourdes; that this apparition bears all the characteristics of truth, and that the faithful may rely upon its reality."
Mary had petitioned that a chapel be built upon the spot. The first stone was laid in the month of October, 1862, the piety of pilgrims furnishing the necessary funds for the erection of the edifice, and on the 21st of May, 1868, the Holy Mass was celebrated there for the first time, in the crypt which was to bear the new sanctuary. The connection existing between the apparitions of 1858 and 1830 is indicated by two painted windows in the sanctuary, one of which represents Bernadette's vision, the other that of Sister Catherine.
The pilgrimage to Lourdes has assumed vast proportions; thanks to the railroads, the pilgrims each year number hundreds of thousands, coming from every quarter of the globe, and countless miracles recompense the faith of those who seek in this sanctuary the merciful power of the Immaculate Mary.
The grotto of Lourdes, reproduced in a thousand places, has become one of the most popular objects of devotion.
As to Bernadette, the interest and veneration attached to her have not in the least affected her candor and simplicity. She has retired to the convent of Sisters Hospitallers of Nevers, and nothing distinguishes her from the most humble of her companions.
OUR LADY OF PONTMAIN (DIOCESE OF LAVAL).—1871.